French actress Léa Seydoux stars in not one but two films In Competition at the Cannes Film Festival this year: The Unknown, directed by Arthur Harari, and Gentle Monster, from director Marie Kreutzer. The latter film draws on skills she’s never displayed in her oeuvre before.
“I’ve always loved to sing and it’s true that it’s the first time that I sing in a film,” she told Deadline and she and Kreutzer sat down for an interview. “I loved it.”
In Gentle Monster Seydoux plays Lucy, a successful musician and singer married to Philip (Laurence Rupp) a somewhat fragile man prone to panic attacks. Her world is shattered after Philip is arrested and accused of being part of a pedophile ring. Kreutzer explained her inspiration to create the story came from reading an article in Die Zeit, the German weekly newspaper.
Laurence Rupp and Léa Seydoux in ‘Gentle Monster’
MK2 Films
“It was about a big ring of pedo-criminals in Germany who were uncovered and then subsequently prosecuted,” the director said. “It was about the whole investigation, it was very explicit, it was very hard to read. And after that, I was at a public [swimming] pool with my daughter, and I walked around the area, and I couldn’t look at the families the same way I had looked at them before. And it just really changed my perspective because obviously I knew about sexual violence against or towards children. But what I wasn’t aware of is that, statistically speaking, I must not only know victims, which I know I do, I must also know perpetrators. And this made me feel very angry and sick, but also helpless. And I thought the only thing I can do about it is make a film about it because that’s what I do.”
Gentle Monster (the title comes from the husband’s online handle) includes several lovemaking scenes with the couple shot with full frontal nudity.
“We had an intimacy coordinator and it’s something that really helped us because it creates a zone where you feel safe,” Seydoux said. “But I have to say that sometimes when we started to talk about the scenes, we tried to rehearse a bit — not really rehearse, but we were like, ‘Okay, what are the parts that you can touch or not touch? What do you feel comfortable with or not?’ And at some point, I felt a bit uncomfortable, I have to say, because I was like, ‘I can’t think too much about it because otherwise I will never be able to let myself go and abandon myself.’”
The actress has expressed ambivalence about the making of Blue Is the Warmest Color, the 2013 Palme d’or winner directed by Abdellatif Kechiche that included very explicit sex scenes between Seydoux and co-star Adèle Exarchopoulos. On Gentle Monster, she had some ground rules in place.
“We did the scenes that I found very beautiful in the film and necessary, but it’s something that I ask me as me — as Léa — when I work with a director, I always want to have the approval on the nude scenes, like always. It’s something that really I feel that belongs to me and I want to have the final cut on those scenes.”
Léa Seydoux and Catherine Deneuve pose during the ‘Gentle Monster’ photocall at the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2026.
Aurore Marechal/Getty Images
In the full interview above, Kreutzer also speaks to how she cast screen legend Catherine Deneuve as Seydoux’s mom.
The Deadline Studio at Cannes is sponsored by SCAD.
Title: Gentle Monster
Section: Competition
Director: Marie Kreutzer
Screenwriter: Marie Kreutzer
Sales agent: MK2
Logline: A renowned pianist relocates with her family to the countryside, where she uncovers a life-shattering truth that forces her to confront the complexities of love, trust, and deception.
Panelists: Marie Kreutzer (director, screenwriter), Léa Seydoux (actress)
